An Anglican cleric seeking the release of foreign hostages in Iraq said today he feared their captors were selling them off to Islamic militants.
"Things are looking very bad for the hostages. The groups that kidnap them are selling them off to militant groups who sell them off again. It is very hard to track them," Canon Andrew White said.
Canon Andrew White
"My worry is that eventually these people will end up in the hands of groups such as al-Qaeda."
Iraq witnessed a frenzy of kidnappings of foreigners in April. Some were freed and others were killed, including American entrepreneur Nicholas Berg, who Washington believes was beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a suspected operative in al-Qaeda.
There are still about 20 foreigners being held.
Dr White, who has mediated in conflicts in hotspots such as the Middle East and Africa, said he was working closely with the US-led administration in Iraq and several embassies to win the release of the Iraq hostages.
The cleric has established a group of mostly moderate Iraqi clerics from all faiths to push for reconciliation in postwar Iraq. But he is struggling for contacts on the ground in places such as Falluja, a fiercely anti-American town where many of the kidnappings took place.
Lack of reliable information on kidnappers, ranging from unknown former agents of Saddam Hussein to highway bandits and other more sophisticated groups, has dashed hopes of any breakthroughs anytime soon.